History Main / SympatheticSentientWeapon

* Viciously subverted by Eveline in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard''. She's a living bioweapon conditioned to seek out a "family" as a means of spreading her contagion (and as we learn in the sequel, [[spoiler:was originally created as a ReplacementGoldfish for the BigBad's late daughter, but was rejected for being an imperfect copy]]), which is plenty sympathetic for a backstory, but her behavior throughout the story perfectly illustrates the quote [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall "There's a difference between having a sympathetic backstory and actually BEING sympathetic."]] For as much pathos as is packed into her origin, Eveline is also an absurdly cruel and sadistic SmugSnake who derives outright ''glee'' from enslaving, torturing and butchering scores of innocent people, laughing and taunting her victims all the way. Only one of her victims ([[spoiler:Jack Baker himself]]) is shown in-game to feel measurable pity for her in light of this, and even that speaks far more to ''his'' sympathetic qualities than it does hers.

* Viciously subverted by Eveline in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard''. She's a living bioweapon conditioned to seek out a "family" as a means of spreading her contagion (and as we learn in the sequel, [[spoiler:was originally created as a ReplacementGoldfish for the BigBad's late daughter, but was rejected for being an imperfect copy]]), which is plenty sympathetic for a backstory, but her behavior throughout the story perfectly illustrates the quote [["WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall There's a difference between having a sympathetic backstory and actually BEING sympathetic."]] For as much pathos as is packed into her origin, Eveline is also an absurdly cruel and sadistic SmugSnake who derives outright ''glee'' from enslaving, torturing and butchering scores of innocent people, laughing and taunting her victims all the way. Only one of her victims ([[spoiler:Jack Baker himself]]) is shown in-game to feel measurable pity for her in light of this, and even that speaks far more to ''his'' sympathetic qualities than it does hers.

See also TykeBomb and HumanWeapon. Subtrope of MadeASlave and ForcedIntoEvil. Compare IAmNotAGun, when this is {{lampshaded}}, and WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. HenchmenRace combined with WoobieSpecies results in an army of these. Related to FaceMonsterTurn which covers turning someone into something monstrous against their will with variety of reasons and methods.

* In ''Series/{{Believe}}'', there is Sean, a {{Tykebomb}} from Project Orchestra who was being held in reserve because he lacked the emotional stability of the candidates ahead of him. Of course, with Bo having been rescued and Joshua stuck in a coma, Sean automatically moved to the head of the line, and it's clear that he's not happy about it.

** Rory, a companion and Amy's LoveInterest returns from being [[RetGone retgoned]] as an Auton. It turns tragic when his programming forces him to shoot Amy. Downlplayed as he had been brought back for espionage purposes rather than becoming a weapon.

* The Asura Machina, armor-like magical beings, from ''Literature/AsuraCryin'' are this, while they're usually formerly human beings who communicate with their handler via ghost-like astral projection, when summoned into battle, they went into a deep-sleep like state as the Asura Machina is summoned.

* Newtypes (and their counterparts in AU verses) in the ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' metaseries are often this. They're usually PsychicChildren who are forced to pilot extremely powerful units after being raised as soldiers or test subjects. They usually suffer mentally and physically from their powers, and a common storyline is TheHero befriending--or falling in love--with the Newtype and being forced to fight them.

* ''Anime/HellGirl'': [[spoiler:Ichimoku Ren]] is a literal example. He's a ''tsukumogami''--i.e. a tool that has gained sentience to become a ''{{yokai}}''. In this case, he used to be a sentient sword, and he can do nothing but [[AndIMustScream watch silently]] while his wielders used him to slaughter in times of war.
* Played straight for many ChildSoldier characters in ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'' -- that includes adults that had been Child Soldiers in their youth, dating back to the very first Hokage's time. However, it is sometimes inverted -- the character is purposefully made TheWoobie to increase his combat power through TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening.

* This is revealed to be [[spoiler:[[AmnesiacHero Oz's]] sin and backstory]] in ''Manga/PandoraHearts,'' as well as the true secret behind [[CataclysmBackstory the Tragedy of Sablier]]. Played for both drama and horror with the reveal that [[spoiler:''he'' was the [[LivingWeapon Chain]] that, under the control of a madman with no regard for anyone's lives, slaughtered and sank the city of Sablier into the Abyss. [[AndIMustScream Entirely against his will]]. Oh, and those echoing tortured screams and pleadings to stop he heard in the ruins a century later? His own.]]

* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''. The Winter Soldier turns out to be [[spoiler: Bucky Barnes, Steve's presumed-dead HeterosexualLifePartner]]. HYDRA turned him into an amnesiac cyborg super-assassin. And it gets even more tragic from there. Not only is he being (essentially) forced to serve the organisation he gave his life to stop, but ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' reveals that he's also [[spoiler:a ManchurianAgent -- even once he's left HYDRA and assassination behind and regained enough of his memories to navigate his life, he's still forced to carry out whatever reprehensible acts the forces of evil want him to commit, so long as they know the correct trigger words. And activation appears to be something of a painful experience.]]

* Darth Maul in ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' most definitely embodies this trope, and is hinted to in current canon, as well.

* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' series the Hork-Bajir were peaceful, dopey race of herbivores that happened to be living incarnations of the LightningBruiser and AbsurdlySharpClaws tropes- making them the perfect shock troops for the Yeerks after being conquered and enslaved.
* Literature/{{Discworld}}'s [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orcs]] in ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'' were an entire species of this in their BackStory. They're {{Super Soldier}}s, they're descended from modified humans, and they didn't ''want'' to be fighting in the hordes of the Evil Empire. Unfortunately, nobody remembers this, and they're wrongly seen as AlwaysChaoticEvil. (Mr. Nutt, the major orc character in the present day, is also a {{woobie}} but not a weaponized one.)
* In ''Literature/DragonBones'' Oreg is a slave who is bound by dark magic to do everything his master orders him to do. ''Everything''. Someone notices, after watching him fight, that he has been trained as assassin. Not so much a sentient weapon as a sentient swiss knife; he can do a lots of other things besides fighting. While he can materialize a seemingly human body, the dark magic his father inflicted on him turned him into the forsaken child in the PoweredByAForsakenChild castle Hurog.
* Marsh from ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy''. Like all Inquisitors, he is inhumanly strong and fast, virtually unkillable, not to mention things like flying through the air thanks to [[FunctionalMagic Allomancy]]. But the process of gaining those powers was gruesome and while for some time he enjoyed autonomy, in later books he is controlled by cosmic entity Ruin, whose aim is basically [[MeaningfulName to bring the world to ruin]]. He can still think on his own but most of the time he is fully under control of Ruin -- and when it is busy somewhere else, he just stands in the middle of a plain, being slowly covered by ash. He is, however [[spoiler:instrumental in bringing Ruin's ultimate downfall and in ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'' he is a legendary figure]].

* Painwheel from ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' was a young schoolgirl who was kidnapped and turned into a monstrous mind-controlled cyborg SuperSoldier. And boy is she [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds mad about it!]]

* ''Anime/HellGirl'': [[spoiler:Ichimoku Ren]] is a literal example. He's a ''tsukumogami''--i.e. a tool that has gained sentience to become a {{yokai}}''. In this case, he used to be a sentient sword, and he can do nothing but [[AndIMustScream watch silently]] while his wielders used him to slaughter in times of war.

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* The cyborgs in ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'' have elements of this, considering that they're young girls who didn't consent to any of this, and the side of effects of cyberneticization and associated conditioning will eventually cost them their personalities and lives. Unusually for the trope, some of them have horrific enough backstories that this isn't the worst thing to ever happen to them.

* Played straight for many ChildSoldier characters in ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'' -- that includes adults that had been Child Soldiers in their youth, dating back to the very first Hokage's time. However, it is sometimes inverted -- the character is purposefully made TheWoobie to increase his combat power through TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening.
* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': Once [[NebulousEvilOrganization The Jahana Group]] becomes aware of Satomi's [[TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne immense]] [[LifeEnergy spirit energy]], they pressure her into entering the VG Tournament by going after her brother. [[TheDragon Damian]] causes his condition to relapse, then offers to cover the procedure needed to cure him... [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse on the condition that Satomi enter the tournament]]. She's left with no choice but to accept their terms and is subjected to the [[CodeName "Black Goddess"]] project, which turns her into a vessel for [[spoiler: [[BigBad Miranda Jahana]]]]'s disembodied spirit.

* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. During the Dark Tournament, Team Urameshi encounters a team of fighters who [[BrainwashedAndCrazy had their minds suppressed as part of Dr Ichigaki's experiment]] they [[DealWithTheDevil agreed to in exchange for healing their ill master]] and were subsequently turned into killing machines. Kuwabara via a psychic link could tell that they were suffering being forced to watch as they killed other people against their will and at one point they stopped fighting long enough to ask for Yusuke [[MercyKill to kill them]].

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', this turns out to be the true nature of the Colossal, Armored, and Female Titans. [[spoiler: Their nation keeps their people in slavery, keeping them alive as fodder for their war machine and not even considering them human beings. Their families volunteered them for a {{Tykebomb}} program as small children, having been promised their freedom in exchange. The children were subjected to TrainingFromHell and extensive indoctrination, then given a power that will ''kill them'' in 13 years. They were sent on a mission to exterminate the people living within the Walls, based on false promises and a made-up threat against the world. Over the years, Bertolt, Reiner, and Annie all begin to psychologically fall apart under the strain of their mission....but are unable to disobey their superiors out of fear for their own lives and those of their families. In the end, only Reiner returned from the mission, becoming a ShellShockedVeteran forced to "prove" his usefulness and loyalty by fighting on the front lines of a major war. Even after getting back into his superiors' good graces, he is left simply waiting for his superiors to pick his replacement and kill him. In a private conversation, he breaks down and describes being one of Marley's Warriors as a cursed existence with a "black future"]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheOrder2007'', poor Mulholland Black was turned into a living WMD by the Black Dahlias.
* In the "Homeschooling" arc of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Klara Prast, whose BackStory included rape, physical abuse, and forced labor, lost control of her plant-controlling powers after an accident and managed to take out a squad of paramilitary thugs.
* When ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' ran into an evil CaptainErsatz version of ComicBook/TheAvengers, the Midnighter managed to talk the ComicBook/IronMan equivalent away by making him realize he was this ("you're just a weapon with a larynx"). In the epilogue, he writes a letter thanking Midnighter for saving him, having found a home and a family.

* Literature/{{Discworld}}'s [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orcs]] in ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'' were an entire species of this in their BackStory. They're {{Super Soldier}}s, they're descended from modified humans, and they didn't ''want'' to be fighting in the hordes of the Evil Empire. Unfortunately, nobody remembers this, and they're wrongly seen as AlwaysChaoticEvil. (Mr. Nutt, the major orc character in the present day, is also a {{woobie}} but not a weaponized one.)
* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' series the Hork-Bajir were peaceful, dopey race of herbivores that happened to be living incarnations of the LightningBruiser and AbsurdlySharpClaws tropes- making them the perfect shock troops for the Yeerks after being conquered and enslaved.
* The Unsullied from ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': They are slave soldiers that are castrated, hooked on medieval magical steroids and put through a brutal regimen of training which most of them do not survive. They are also brainwashed to be obedient and personality-less. Much emphasis is put on how inhumane is their very existence and how Daenerys Targaryen did a good thing by freeing all Unsullied from slavery, encouraging them to develop personality and putting a stop to producing any new ones.

* River Tam in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' was a gifted young girl who got turned into a psychic assassin with serious mental health issues. Fortunately, her brother rescued her and is doing his best to help her, but she's still a pretty [[BreakTheCutie broken cutie]].

* In ''Series/{{Believe}}'', there is Sean, a {{Tykebomb}} from Project Orchestra who was being held in reserve because he lacked the emotional stability of the candidates ahead of him. Of course, with Bo having been rescued and Joshua stuck in a coma, Sean automatically moved to the head of the line, and it's clear that he's not happy about it.

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ'': The Sphere of Leo grants its power from any machine as long as the user is in pain. After many millennia in battle, it wants to not fight anymore and decides to reside in a human, specifically the original character Mail.

* Gunther in ''Webcomic/Collar6'' was "Project Vojna," a SuperSoldier prototype who was being conditioned into a mindless, remorseless killer. Unfortunately for his handlers, they [[WouldntHurtAChild pushed him too far]], and he bolted.

* The Asura Machina, armor-like magical beings, from ''LightNovel/AsuraCryin'' are this, while they're usually formerly human beings who communicate with their handler via ghost-like astral projection, when summoned into battle, they went into a deep-sleep like state as the Asura Machina is summoned.

* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': Once [[NebulousEvilOrganization The Jahana Group]] becomes aware of Satomi's [[TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne immense]] [[LifeEnergy spirit energy]], they pressure her into entering the VG Tournament by going after [[IllGirl her brother]]. [[TheDragon Damian]] causes his condition to relapse, then offers to cover the procedure needed to cure him... [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse on the condition that Satomi enter the tournament]]. She's left with no choice but to accept their terms and is subjected to the [[CodeName "Black Goddess"]] project, which turns her into a vessel for [[spoiler: [[BigBad Miranda Jahana]]]]'s disembodied spirit.

More often than not, some branch of ResearchInc will be behind it - either ForScience, or [[OnlyInItForTheMoney for profit]], and usually at the behest of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive their malevolent benefactor]], as part of some sinister plot. Or it could be the result of any manner of [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse shady business]] the victim wouldn't voluntarily be a part of.

See also {{Tykebomb}} and HumanWeapon. Subtrope of MadeASlave and ForcedIntoEvil. Compare IAmNotAGun, when this is {{lampshaded}}, and WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. HenchmenRace combined with WoobieSpecies results in an army of these. Related to FaceMonsterTurn which covers turning someone into something monstrous against their will with variety of reasons and methods.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E11TheHunted The Hunted]]", Roga Danar.
-->'''Roga Danar''': My improved reflexes have allowed me to kill eighty-four times. And my improved memory allows me to remember each of those eighty-four faces. Can you imagine what that feels like?"

* In ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' the Handymen are disabled humans grafted into huge robotic suits and go into a berserk screaming rage when they attack you. However, the human is not in full control. If you listen ''very'' carefully, some of their screams are pleas to kill them and warnings to get away. Near one of them you can find a recording from his wife telling him she still loves him.
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ'': The Sphere of Leo grants its power from any machine as long as the user is in pain. After many millennia in battle it wants to not fight anymore and decides to reside in a human, specifically the original character Mail.

* In ''ComicBook/TheOrder'', poor Mulholland Black was turned into a living WMD by the Black Dahlias.

* Several times throughout the ''Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}}'' series, [[SparedByTheAdaptation Tom]] is disturbed by the idea that he's now the perfect [[MeatPuppet host]] because the [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]] turned him into a weapon when they forced the [[{{Animorphism}} morphing power]] upon him.[[/folder]]

** The Gunslinger in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E3ATownCalledMercy A Town Called Mercy]]'' was turned into a OneManArmy cyborg in order to fight in a war, and was discarded once it was won. He resents the man responsible for his transformation for having turned him into a monster.

** Rory, a companion and Amy's LoveInterest returns from being [[RetGone retgoned]] as an Auton. It turns tragic when his programming forces him to shoot Amy.
** The Cybermen, who are essentially {{Muggles}} enslaved and forcibly made to {{Take a Level in Badass}}. However, both of these examples are downplayed, since the Cybermen are more focused on {{Immortality}} than becoming living weapons, and Rory was brought back for espionage purposes rather than becoming a weapon.

* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' fanfic ''[[Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}} The Thing from Another World]]'', [[SparedByTheAdaptation Tom]] isn't happy [[spoiler:when he's told that he's an estreen (someone naturally talented at morphing)]]; the [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]] already made him into a weapon when they gave him the morphing power, and he's horrified by the idea that he was the ideal host all along.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* The titular creature of ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' is an alien robot with a GentleGiant personality who really DoesNotLikeGuns. However, when he faces the human army, it's revealed that he's actually a war machine with hidden weapons that get activated against his will.
[[/folder]]